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Brighton Senior Citizens Club Memorial PlaquePrint Page Print this page

17-March-2016
17-March-2016
Photographs supplied by Bryan Cole

The plaque commemorates the members and friends of the Brighton Senior Citizens Club who were killed in Snowy Mountains in September 1973.

Adaminaby, Wednesday. - Eighteen people were killed and another 21 were injured when a tourist bus plunged down a slope on the edge of the Tumut Pond reservoir near Cabramurra this afternoon. All were members of the Brighton Senior Citizens Club, from Adelaide, which had been taking a week-long tour of south-eastern Australia.

The accident occurred shortly after 2.30pm when the bus, which had been travelling from Khancoban to Cooma, failed to take a corner on the steep, narrow road about four miles from Cabramurra. The bus plunged about 200 ft down the very steep embankment, the roof and seating flying away from the bus before it came to rest just at the edge of the reservoir.

Passengers were flung along the embankment, some landing and drowning in the reservoir. Others slid down the 80-degree slope to the water's edge.

Police have interviewed the driver of the bus, Mr James Ogilvie, 25, who escaped serious injury. The bus had been travelling along a steep, winding road, police said, when the brakes failed and Mr Ogilvie tried desperately to stop the bus. It was going downhill and in a last desperate attempt he drove it side on into the stone mountain wall.
The Canberra Times, 27 September 1973. 

 

Location

Address:444 Brighton Road, St Jude`s Church, Brighton, 5048
State:SA
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -35.017013
Long: 138.523188
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Plaque
Monument Theme:People
Sub-Theme:Tragedy
Actual Event Start Date:26-September-1973
Actual Event End Date:26-September-1973

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Monday 26th September, 2005
Front Inscription

         City of
    Holdfast Bay 

 REDEDICATION
To the memory of 
those members and friends of the Brighton Senior Citizens Club 
who tragically lost their lives in Snowy Mountains on 
26 September 1973

[ Names ]

Ken Rolland        Mayor
Rob Donaldson  Chief Executive Officer
       26 September 2005

Source: MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au